Nico Pena (Basketball, Monroe University) grew up in Staten Island. HelloNation asks student athletes one question about the place that raised them and records the answer on camera. This is Nico Pena’s, in full.
The question
Tell us about a teacher or mentor from high school who challenged you the most or inspired you in a way that still shapes who you are today. Who are they, and what lesson from them do you carry into your life now?
The answer, as recorded
Transcript. What follows is a transcript of the video above, in Nico Pena’s own words. It has not been rewritten, and no part of it was drafted for them.
One mentor from high school, I would definitely say it was my high school coach. His name is Alex Mirabel. He coached me my junior and senior year. So he shaped, I learned a pretty valuable lesson from him. So I transferred into the school my junior year. So I was there my junior and senior year and it was in a different state. It was with a bunch of people I didn't know really being in a different state. So it was a very hard transition for me. It was my first time like doing something like that, being in a really like new environment. So for on the basketball side of things, like which is easier for me than the school, honestly, because basketball is more comfortable. But he was very challenging mentally and he was just hard in general on me. And I've known him before I went there, but I think he purposely did that to bring some sort of toughness out of me. But he was hard on me since I got there. Very challenging, very demanding. And at the time, it was very hard on me mentally, like to get through that time of my life being in a new school. But looking back at it, it was very, very, very valuable from him. And I learned a lot, you know, like nowadays, if I go to a new school, I'm going to a new college this year. Or anytime I had to go to somewhere new after that, I wasn't really as uncomfortable, I'll say, because I got used to it. And that that junior year when I first got there and the way he was on me, it was kind of like a lasting impact on me.
Recorded by HelloNation as part of its athlete voices program and published by Hello Newswire, HelloNation’s good news newswire. The words are the speaker’s own.
Reported by Hello Newswire.